A presentation at the one-year encounter of theAmerican Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene(ASTMH ) has announced that a lethal computer virus emerging in Bolivia can pass from human to human . Chapare computer virus , which causes haemorrhagic fever , had antecedently only been view in small clusters of patients , but a recent eruption saw several emergency military service workers infect following exposure to a patient with the disease . At least three people were infected near Bolivia ’s capital city , La Paz , in 2019 , two of whom died from the disease .
" Our work confirmed that a immature medical resident , an ambulance medic and a gastroenterologist all contracted the virus after encounters with septic patients , and two of these healthcare worker later break , " say Caitlin Cossaboom , an epidemiologist with theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC ) , at theconference . " We now trust many corporal fluid can potentially carry the virus . "
The breakthrough has called for all healthcare proletarian dealing with suspect cases of Chapare virus to take extreme care in purchase order to avert picture from potential contaminants including blood , urine , spit , and semen . The exact mechanics through which the illness passes from soul to mortal is not yet known , but it ’s suspected that saliva could play a role .
An ambulance medic who survived is retrieve to have caught Chapare from an septic medical resident who they resuscitated on route to the hospital . That same aesculapian resident , who die from the disease , is mean to have contracted it after suctioning spittle from an infected patient . There was also evidence of viral RNA in a semen sample taken from a survivor 168 24-hour interval after they were infect , signal that intimate infection is another way in which the computer virus could spread .
Chapare is anarenavirus , a radical of pathogens that include the Lassa computer virus and Machupo virus , both of which caused mortal outbreaks in West Africa and Bolivia severally . These arenaviruses do haemorrhagic febricity that results in patients suffer multiple organ complications and haemorrhage . This condition is also found in Ebola patients and is a complex one for health care team to manage .
The source of the 2019 outbreak of Chapare in Bolivia has yet to be confirmed , but viral RNA was found in rodents confining to the home of the first identified patient . Viral RNA on its own is not sufficient enough evidence to reason out rodents as the origin but tender of import insights that could avail future investigations narrow down the cause . The rodents regard were pygmy Elmer Rice rats and small - eared pygmy rice rats , both of which are found across Bolivia and some of its neighboring countries .
" While there is still much that remains unknown about Chapare virus , it ’s praiseworthy how rapidly this team was able to develop a diagnostic mental test , support human - to - human transmittance and reveal preliminary grounds of the computer virus in rodent , " said ASTMH President Joel Breman , during theconference . " It ’s a valuable lesson that international scientific squad , equipped with the latest tools and freely sharing their insights , are our better front - line defence against the turbulent threats of lethal infective disease . "
